About this collection

Since the invention of the book and libraries, readers have been leaving things that belong to them in books that do not. For many decades staff at the Ireland Library retained hundreds of holy cards that have been found in returned books. Some are beautiful (handmade paper lace cards, art nouveau, art deco, Italian and German chromolithographs), some have local associations (ordinations, funerals, anniversaries), some are rather odd, many are touching. All have a wonderful immediacy, embodying popular piety in the very best sense of the word. A selection of these objets trouvés are displayed in this collection; suggested categories for browsing are listed below.